“Okay, I think I get it now,” I said, before a hint of complaint entered my voice. “You could’ve told me earlier, you know.”
Pherousa smiled. “Sorry. I was going to explain later. I didn’t think your friend would know so much about fish-folk.”
To be fair, it didn’t seem like she’d intended to surprise me like that. But now that she’d mentioned it...
“She’s right,” Capitan said. “Why do you know so much, Diego? General details, I’d understand, but knowing the titles of fish-folk royalty seems rather specific.”
This was true of beast-folk as well, but fish-folk tended to be quite secretive—though the biggest reason they weren’t common knowledge was probably just that they often lived in places like the underwater city Pherousa had mentioned, which humans couldn’t reach by ordinary means.
Nevertheless, Diego seemed to be rather knowledgeable. Perhaps it wasn’t all that strange, since there were some ethnicities of beast-folk that also lived underwater, but I didn’t think that was the major reason.
“Simple,” Diego said. “My mother was a fish-folk. She told me some things about her people. That’s all.”
“What? But you’re clearly a beast-folk,” I pointed out.
The reason for my confusion was that when members of different races produced children, said offspring tended to inherit the characteristics of both parents. The child of a rabbit-folk and fish-folk, for example, was likely to have both scales and long ears. I supposed Diego could have had fish-folk features somewhere beneath his clothes, where I couldn’t see them, but...
“If you’ve got answers, I’d like to know too,” Diego said, shrugging. “But I’m essentially all beast-folk. The spitting image of my pops when he was younger, apparently.”
“So you’ve got no fish-folk features at all?” I asked.
Diego shook his head. “None. Doesn’t really cause me any trouble, so I’m not bothered. I might even stand a decent chance of having children.”
“Ah, yeah. I’ve heard that children can be a difficult prospect for mixed-race couples. I don’t know how difficult, though.”
“It’s possible, albeit very unlikely,” Diego explained. “And many children that are born end up having reduced lifespans. It’s why you don’t see many mixed-race people around. The strange thing is that we can have children with humans, no problem. Mysterious, isn’t it?”
He was speaking the truth; there was a reason reproductive compatibility was cited as a specific characteristic of humans when compared to other races.
“When it comes to race, there are probably more questions than will ever be answered,” I agreed. Case in point: me. But while I used to think that I was the only person who went through life without knowing who I really was, talking with Diego had made me realize that other races also had their share of inexplicable mysteries. Maybe I didn’t need to feel so lonely after all.
“No wonder Rentt smelled like the ocean,” Pherousa said. “I didn’t expect one of his friends to be part fish-folk.”
“And here I was convinced it was because we’d gone to the Dungeon of the Sea God’s Daughters,” I said.
“I guess both could be true. It doesn’t really matter.” She paused. “More importantly, can we get to why we’re here? What are you going to do with me?”
“Ah, right. Diego?” I said, turning to him.
It seemed he’d guessed what I wanted to ask, because his expression became somewhat resigned. “Let me guess. You want to put her up at my place?” he said.
“I won’t go quite that far,” I said. “I just wanted to know if you could hire her on, at least temporarily. From what she’s told me, she can’t go back home right now. She doesn’t have a way to earn her keep in this city either, which is why she turned to pickpocketing. She doesn’t seem like a bad kid, so...”
The curse vendor sighed. “Not like I can turn her away after hearing all that, can I? I’m already putting up Niedz and the others, so what’s one more, right? Besides, she’ll come in handy on days like today when those three are too exhausted from delving.” He turned. “Pherousa, right? Are you okay with that?”
“Okay with what?” she asked. “Are you hiring me? But I’m a fish-folk, and a pickpocket besides.”
“Well, Rentt here’s a bleeding heart who likes to take in ruffians who try to rob him just because he feels bad for them. Compared to that, a pickpocket who only steals out of desperation is nothing. And I do kinda like that side of him, you know? As for the fish-folk thing, I’m a beast-folk myself, with fish-folk blood. You’ll get no prejudice from me.”
“I-In that case... I’d be glad to work for you. I promise I’ll be useful!”
“It’s just watching the store, so it shouldn’t be too difficult. Just don’t slack off, and you’ll be fine.”
While the pair were talking, Capitan came over and muttered in a low voice. “So? Is this really just because you have a bleeding heart?”
“I won’t deny that’s a part of it,” I said. “But since she’s a fish-folk, I figured she had connections to their underwater city, so I thought she could serve as insurance in case we didn’t find any sea spirit herbs in the dungeon. Now that I know she’s royalty, though, it seems like she was quite the valuable catch.”
“I can’t tell if you’re a good guy or a villain, with a line like that,” Capitan said incredulously. “But I suppose it doesn’t matter. You would’ve done the same for her even if she hadn’t turned out to be royalty, right?”
“I’d like to think so. Oh, and I wanted to ask. How does that joint-locking technique you used on Diego work? Why couldn’t he move?” The technique had been impressive, especially since it had worked on a cat lineage beast-folk like Diego.
“I used spirit, of course,” Capitan said. “By making contact with an opponent, you can manipulate their own spirit and lock it in place. With enough practice, you can do a lot more than that too.”
“Such as?”
“Make it explode.”
“You say that so casually...”